A collection of top water news from around California and the West compiled each weekday. Send any comments or article submissions to Foundation News & Publications Director Vik Jolly.
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… On May 19, (Paul) Westerhoff — who is the deputy director
of the National Science Foundation Nanosystems Engineering
Research Center for Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment, an
interdisciplinary, multi-institution nanosystems engineering
research center headquartered at Rice University — kicked off
the event, acknowledging the launch of ASU’s Global Center for
Water Technology, which he’ll be leading. Part of ASU’s ongoing
work with the Arizona Water Innovation Initiative, which began
in 2022, the new center will advance innovative technologies
that enhance water quality while generating an additional
250,000 acre-feet per year of sustainable water annually within
a decade. The center’s work will be for and about Arizona: “We
looked at what do we need in Arizona that Arizona State
University can provide,” Westerhoff said.
Pebble Beach Company, California Coastkeeper Alliance, The
Otter Project and Monterey Waterkeeper are teaming up for a
historic alliance to enhance the protection of water quality in
the Carmel Bay, which is designated as an Area of Special
Biological Significance (ASBS). As part of its
longstanding commitment to environmental sustainability and
stewardship, Pebble Beach Company will, in coordination with
its not-for-profit organization colleagues, pursue a
first-in-nation Clean Water Act permit for discharges from
Pebble Beach Golf Links into the Carmel Bay ASBS. This includes
increasing water quality monitoring and developing updated best
management practices related to dry-weather and stormwater
discharges into the Carmel Bay ASBS, building on the company’s
longstanding discharge management plan. Pebble Beach Company
will also donate $50,000 to the Big Sur Land Trust to support
environmental projects related to water quality in the Carmel
Bay ASBS and for programs to facilitate access to Carmel Bay.
After a brutal spring of toxic algae blooms turning some sea
lions into sick, snarling seaside hazards, anxious beachgoers
can breathe a sigh of relief as experts say the worst of the
poisoning is over. … The California coastline can
experience large-scale blooms of algae called Pseudo-nitzschia
australis when warm water combines with excess nutrients such
as nitrogen and phosphorus. Researchers say that climate change
and an increase in agricultural runoff,
wastewater discharge and urban
stormwater have increased the scale and
frequency of these blooms in recent years. Small fish
including anchovies and sardines ingest the toxic algae, which
then bioaccumulate in larger marine mammals that eat the
fish.
The Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District awarded a contract
to upgrade the chemical pipelines at the Back Basin Groundwater
Treatment Plant.A 5-0 EVMWD board vote May 8 authorized a
$349,737 public works contract with Tharsos, Inc., whose office
is in La Mesa, for the work. Ardurra, which has a Temecula
office, performed the design of the upgrades and the board
action also authorized a $34,000 expenditure for Ardurra staff
time during the construction phase. The total $404,952
authorized expenditure amount also covers $19,296 for EVMWD
staff time and $1,919 for overhead, and the board action also
found the replacement or reconstruction of an existing facility
to be categorically exempt from California Environmental
Quality Act review.
The school year is wrapping up but teachers looking for
water-focused curriculum are invited to “The Future of Water,”
a series of hands-on workshops presented 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Saturday, June 14 at Dry Creek Preserve in Woodlake. The event
is organized by Sequoia Riverlands Trust, a Visalia-based
nonprofit focused on land preservation, and the Sequoia
Environmental Educational Directive, known as SEED. SEED is a
coalition of local nonprofit organizations, educators, and
businesses interested in promoting outdoor education and
supporting climate literacy in Tulare County. While “The Future
of Water” is open to the public, teachers looking for lesson
plans about water conservation and natural and man-made water
systems are especially encouraged to attend. High school
students may attend with their teacher.
The San Joaquin River connects three of the defining features
of California’s landscape, the Sierra Nevada Central Valley in
San Francisco Bay the river and its tributaries cover a
drainage of over 15,000 square miles. Today on KVPR Central
Valley roots the story of the river and how it earned its many
names. Long before the river was called the San Joaquin, native
peoples lived along its banks and fished its waters. The Mono
tribe called the river Typici-h-huu, which means important or
great river. The Yokuts also called the river home, and named
it Tihshachu, which means “salmon spearing place.” … In
either 1805 or 1806, an expedition led by Gabriel Moraga
entered the Central Valley and came across the river. Moraga
named it after St. Joachim, the father of the Virgin Mary. Thus
the name San Joaquin River was born.
… A roughly $100 million project shared by Yuba Water Agency,
the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the National
Marine Fisheries Service aims to address declining salmon
populations and improve conditions for all species inhabiting
the river. But anglers who fish the river fear what could
happen to their vaunted trout fishery once its gate opens.
… What officials have called a “nature-like fishway”
stands as the center piece of the Yuba River Resilience
Initiative, with its two-year construction slated to begin in
2026. The designed waterway would effectively act as a channel
bypassing Daguerre Point Dam, allowing more fish species to
pass up and down the river. … The fishway would clear a
path for virtually all fish species to move past the dam. But
stakeholders disagree about the consequences of that free
passage into salmon and trout habitat currently protected from
predators.
The major heat wave expected in California’s Central Valley
this weekend will bring triple-digit temperatures and increased
fire risk, a harbinger for what figures to be another scorching
summer. And this year the typically cool coastal areas may not
be spared, raising the possibility of even more widely spread
wildfires for a state long beleaguered by
them. … AccuWeather senior meteorologist Scott
Homan said the chances of wildfires will also be heightened,
especially in Southern California after it received
below-average precipitation in the winter and early spring.
Most of the region is in a drought, and
significant parts are in extreme drought. …The National
Interagency Fire Center noted the snowpack has
been melting faster than usual amid warm weather in the West
and will dissipate by late June even in mountain areas that had
large accumulations, removing a barrier to wildfire spread over
the summer.
Researchers have found that pollutants in the Tijuana River,
which carries raw sewage and industrial waste from Tijuana, are
also turning up in the air along the coast near the U.S.-Mexico
border. After collecting samples from air and water along the
coast, scientists from UC San Diego determined that fine
particles of various pollutants from wastewater are in the air
in parts of San Diego County. They found that sea spray
aerosols contain illicit drugs and drug byproducts that occur
in human urine, as well as chemicals from tires and personal
care products. The researchers said the pollutants are carried
in wastewater and stormwater runoff, and become airborne in
spray where the river meets the crashing waves near the border.
Pollutants also likely enter the air from churning waters in
the river itself, they said.
Six years after first announcing plans to walk away from
the Potter Valley Project, Pacific Gas
and Electric Company has finally revealed the staggering price
tag for dismantling the century-old hydroelectric facility:
$532 million. That’s the estimated cost PG&E submitted to
state regulators on May 15, a half-billion-dollar teardown that
will be funded by PG&E customers, many of whom also risk
losing the year-round water supply the system delivers to
600,000 people across Northern
California. … Now, with the Potter Valley Project
slated for removal, a replacement is already on the drawing
board. The New Eel-Russian Facility, led by
the Eel-Russian Project Authority, commonly referred to as
ERPA, would be built near Cape Horn Dam to keep water flowing
while restoring the Eel River’s natural processes.
The final listening session focusing on a controversial water
rule will be held Thursday in Salt Lake City to give Utah
residents a chance to weigh in. Called the Waters of the United
States, or WOTUS, the hotly contested issue
has wrangled its way up to the U.S. Supreme
Court. … An Obama-era rule issued in 2015 as an
outgrowth of a Supreme Court decision was lauded by
environmental activists and conservation groups as the most
significant and impressive overhaul of the Clean Water
Act in 42 years. … Supporters of WOTUS say it
is meant to protect the benefits of water for all people of the
United States to enjoy, not just individual property owners.
The rule, however, was derided by states, private property
owners and ranchers as regulatory overreach that stretched the
meaning of words like navigable, near or adjacent.
LAO Bottom Line: We recommend deferring action on both
proposals, without prejudice. These policy issues do not have
budget implications. Deferring action would allow the
Legislature more time and capacity for sufficient consideration
of the potential benefits, implications, and trade-offs. Below,
we describe the proposals and note some key issues for the
Legislature to keep in mind when it considers these
proposals.
A Colorado cactus once thought vulnerable to oil shale
development has now become the first plant to be removed from
Endangered Species Act protections during the
current Trump administration. Crediting a mix of “ongoing
conservation efforts” and “improved scientific data,” the Fish
and Wildlife Service announced its final decision to delist the
previously threatened Colorado hookless cactus. The move
completes a proposal initiated by the Biden administration in
2023. “We determined that oil shale deposit development and
gold mining, predation, herbicide and pesticide application, or
collection and commercial trade are not threats to the
existence of the species even though they were identified as
such in the 1979 listing rule,” the FWS states in a final rule
to be published Thursday in the Federal Register.
Parts of Tehama County, including around Red Bluff, Corning and
Antelope, are sinking, officials have discovered, prompting an
emergency meeting to decide next steps to intervene. In a
statement announcing the June 3 meeting, county officials said
they found the mid- to southwestern part of Tehama had
“observable land subsidence on a scale that has never been
recorded.” … In Tehama County, some of the area’s
groundwater dried up during years of heavy drought, according
to the announcement. The soil is now collapsing into the cavity
left by the absent water, making the ground above it
sink. Other factors are further stressing what’s left of
the underground water supply, according to the county. These
include changes in agricultural practices and less surface
water available from lakes, creeks and other water bodies.
… Low commodity prices, declining land values, and a
tightening credit market have all contributed to increased
anxiety for San Joaquin Valley farmers, especially almond
growers. In 2024, there were 216 farm bankruptcies nationwide,
an increase of 55% from the previous year. Of that number,
California had the most with 17 farms falling into bankruptcy.
… The decline in land value led to another problem for
farmers, a loss of collateral to back up their loans. “With the
loss of those large farming entities you have a flood of land
on the market and it depressed the land values and so now you
no longer have the collateral you need,” said Hagop Bedoyan, a
bankruptcy attorney in Fresno. “Lenders like to see more of an
equity cushion.” Bedoyan added that lenders not only want
farmers to have more equity but they are also requiring farmers
to have two sources of water, surface and well
water.
The State Water Resources Control Board is launching a new and
improved system called CalWATRS (short for California
Water Accounting Tracking and Reporting System) to make
reporting water rights easier and more efficient. This system
will help the state manage water data better and make it easier
for the public to access important information. … You’ll
be able to explore and get used to the new CalWATRS system from
July through September 2025. This is your chance to try it out
before official reporting begins. Look for more information on
the CalWATRS website. … The current system, eWRIMS, will stop
accepting reports on June 8, 2025. You’ll still be able to
search for water rights information in eWRIMS after that, but
you won’t be able to submit anything new.
Spending warm summer days at the lake might look a little
different for some people this year. Lake Camanche has been
added the long list of Northern California waterways,
restricting boats and other watercraft because of invasive
golden mussels. … Objects like
paddleboards or kayaks are not allowed because of the recent
spread of the golden mussel, discovered for the first time in
Northern California last year. According to the East Bay
Municipal Utility District, unless you have a boat with a
permanent slip at Camanche, or were in the water or in on site
dry storage when boat launches closed last November, your
watercraft is banned. … Tiwana Cypress and her husband
have been camping at Lake Camanche for 10 years.
… Cypress said she’s seen other options, like taking
advantage of the lake’s boat rentals.
Two longtime employees are taking over operations at the Kern
County Water Agency in an interim capacity. The agency
named Nick Pavletich and Craig Wallace as co-managers while it
conducts a search for a new general manager. … Board
President Eric Averett said in a statement last week that the
board believes that this is the right time to take the
leadership of the agency in a new direction and did not provide
any specifics as to why McCarthy was ousted. … Pavletich is
the Administrative Operations Manager and has been with the
agency for 24 years. Wallace is the State Water Project Manager
and has been with the agency for a decade. Pavletich will
oversee all local activities in his interim role, with Wallace
taking over all statewide activities, including a special focus
on the proposed Delta tunnel.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) reported
the Colusa County Superior Court sentenced a Placer County man
May 21 to two years in jail for commercializing state wildlife.
According to the DFW, Justin D. Lewis conspired to
commercialize Pacific lamprey, a jawless fish that is usually
sourced commercially from Alaska and highly regarded as bait
for sturgeon and other fish. The DFW also noted lamprey have
significant food and cultural significance to Yurok tribal
members in Del Norte County and other tribal communities in the
area. Lewis sourced the fish from the Klamath River in Del
Norte County and resold through co-conspirators in Colusa
County and elsewhere, DFW confirmed. “Because of a temporary
downturn in the bait market, Lewis and others created an
illegal commercial market for California lamprey,” the DFW
stated.
Some La Plata County residents are looking for alternate
sources of drinking water after a wastewater treatment system
malfunctioned, sending E. coli into the local waterways. The
wastewater treatment system serves Pine Winds Mobile Home Park,
where about 60 people live east of the La Plata River and west
of Durango. Rivulets of water crisscrossed the community’s main
road Monday, flooding its central leach field. The field
typically helps treat wastewater before it enters the
groundwater system or nearby creek that flows into the La Plata
River. The leach field is failing, said Nicole Rowan,
director of the water quality control division at the Colorado
Department of Public Health and Environment. “There’s too much
water in there, so it can’t slowly let the water flow through
it to properly treat it,” Rowan said.
